Baba Shetty, Former CEO At Newsweek/The Daily Beast, Joins Digitas As Chief Strategy & Media Officer

Renowned Industry Veteran's Appointment Boosts Agency's Growing Media Chops

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Jul 17, 2013, 01:28 ET

NEW YORK, July 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Digitas, a digitally led integrated brand agency, today announces the appointment of Baba Shetty to the newly created role of Chief Strategy and Media Officer.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130717/PH48908)

In his role Shetty will oversee the media, content and social capabilities, which includes BrandLIVE™, a proprietary agency platform that creates relevance and value for brands every day. Shetty will be based in Digitas' Boston office and will report directly to Tony Weisman, CEO, DigitasLBi North America.

"Baba is a brilliant brand and digital strategist with 25 years of industry expertise and a proven track record of innovation in both the agency and publishing worlds," says Tony Weisman. "Baba is uniquely qualified to accelerate Digitas' growing media capability to a unparalleled competitive advantage, creating truly real-time marketing and story-telling. We're delighted to welcome him onboard."

Shetty's appointment comes on the heels of significant wins for Digitas' media capability; the agency was recently tapped to handle media buying for The New York Stock Exchange and Lenovo, as well as global media planning and buying for Motorola. In addition, earlier this month the agency hired former Apple media expert Tamara Bousquet to serve as an SVP in Boston.

"We're at a transformational moment in marketing, and only a handful of agencies can legitimately claim world-class status across the disciplines that matter most today -- media and creative, data and technology," says Baba Shetty. "Digitas can; it's a truly innovative agency whose combination of global scale, agility and ability to connect data to real-time storytelling is unique in the industry. And their terrific marketplace momentum with leadership brands proves it. I'm thrilled and honored to be joining the Digitas team at this important time."

Baba Shetty, Brand Guru

Shetty was most recently CEO at Newsweek/The Daily Beast, where he led the relaunch of Newsweek's website after the magazine moved from print to an all-digital format. The new, fully-responsive site pushed the boundaries of professional journalism, developing a radically creative user experience while staying true to Newsweek's editorial content.

In February 2013 Shetty co-authored the article, "Advertisers Should Act More Like Newsrooms" for the Harvard Business Review, a point of view that Digitas brings to life with BrandLIVE™, the agency's pioneering newsroom approach to real-time brand storytelling.

Prior to Newsweek/The Daily Beast, Shetty worked at Hill Holliday, an Interpublic Group agency, from 2005-2012. Shetty served first as Chief Media Officer and then added the role of Chief Strategy Officer. During his time at the agency, Shetty led strategy for two client programs that each won a Cannes Lion (Liberty Mutual's Responsibility Project and Major League Baseball). Under his stewardship, the media department was awarded Media Agency of the Year by Media Magazine for both 2011 and 2012, and Hill Holliday was the only agency in the country to win Adweek's Media Plan of the Year Award four consecutive years. He initiated new practice areas in digital, content, social media and partnerships with early stage media startups. In 2012 Baba led strategy on the Bank of America pitch, the largest new business win in the agency's history. Overall, Baba was part of a senior leadership team at Hill Holliday that grew agency revenue 80% during his tenure.

Before Hill Holliday, Shetty led digital at Fallon Worldwide in Minneapolis, worked as a marketing communications manager at BMW and spent three years as a principal analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, MA.

About DigitasLBi

DigitasLBi, the leading, "most complete" global digital agency network, partners with some of the foremost marketers and brands in the world. Also a top ten global agency, DigitasLBi comprises of 5,700 best-in-class digital and technology experts in 25 countries around the world.

In 2012, Digitas and LBi received a combined total of over 200 awards globally including two Cannes Lions Grand Prix's and SXSW People's Choice Award. Digitas was also recently named OMMA Agency of the Year 2012 and LBi UK Digital Agency of the Year 2012 by Marketing magazine. Digitas USA operates the brand content platform, The Third Act: producers of first and most well renowned event on digital content, The NewFront.

With sister agencies Starcom MediaVest Group, ZenithOptimedia, Denuo and Razorfish, DigitasLBi is a member of Publicis Groupe. Publicis Groupe [listed on the Euronext Paris Exchange -- FR0000130577 -- and part of the CAC 40 index] is the world's third largest communications group. With activities spanning 104 countries on five continents, Publicis Groupe offers local and international clients a complete range of advertising services. Web site: www.publicisgroupe.com

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SOURCE DigitasLBi